Wind turbines and our Audubon friends
The Turk power plant battle has taken some odd twists and turns in recent months, with the Sierra Club and Audubon Arkansas taking the lead in challenging the coal fired ultra super-critical power plant in southwest Arkansas. In early June, the same two groups announced their backing of a backyard wind turbine project at the Dunbar Community Center in Little Rock. Nice little project and we hope they are successful. We need all the diversification of power sources we can find and create.
But, it does strike one a little odd that the growing mountain of evidence indicates that wind turbines are indeed a source with negative impacts to our feathered friends, the very creatures that these two wind-advocating groups were originally focused on in decades past. Recent studies indicate that for every megawatt of installed wind power, one to six birds are whacked annually. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that US wind turbines currently kill between 75,000 and 275,000 birds annually and with the environmentalists’ goal of producing 20% of our energy needs by 2030 by these aviarian cuisinarts, the feather count will explode…no pun intended. With 300,000 mw in production by 2030-a twelve fold increase from 2008 levels-an estimated 300,000 - 1.8 million birds will be sliced and diced annually. (Source: Wall Street Journal, Sept. 8, 2009 Windmills are Killing our Birds by Robert Bryce) Arguably, between 3 million to 18 million birds will become victims of windmill blades getting us to that goal over the next two decades. It’s an inconvenient truth that feathered fans have yet to confront in their anti-coal war.
One wonders when the feds will apply the same strict enforcement to wind farms, turbine producers and alternative power companies that they have heaped upon traditional power companies in recent months. Exxon was fined $600k for killing 85 birds in August under the provisions of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Pacificorp paid $1.4 million for killing 232 golden eagles in Wyoming over the past two years. Comparable fines on the wind industry for today’s death toll would add about $1.95 billion annually to wind operation costs. Those chickens have not yet come home to roost.
The moral-every form of energy has an environmental price…even “free” energy.
The Grand Poohbah
Tags: Energy
